Shanghai’s Little White House
They call it the “Little White House,” and it was one of the finest grand mansions of old Shanghai. Still is. Constructed by a company whose buildings would become icons, this gracious belle époque mansion on Fenyang Lu never housed Presidents, but for nearly half a century after it was built, it was the home of men ...
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AstraZeneca, Shanghai, and the fall of the Qing Dynasty
by Duncan Hewitt // You may – just possibly – have heard the name AstraZeneca recently…But did you know about its Shanghai connection? One of the pharmaceutical company’s forerunners had a close association with China in the first half of the 20th century, leaving an architectural legacy in Shanghai – where it ...
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Chin Woo Athletic Association Buildings
“Historic Beauty to be Torn Down”, blared the headline. It was August 5, 2011, and it was clear that time was of the essence, so despite the sweltering Shanghai heat, I headed down to 379 Huimin Road, at the corner of Dalian Road, in Yangpu District. There, I discovered an island of architectural beauty in a desert ...
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Inside Hardoon’s Garden
Hardoon Garden, Aili Garden. Even today, the name conjures up mystery and legend. Mystery, because few photos survive of this exquisite Chinese-style residential garden that lay inside high vermilion gates. Legend, because it was the home of Shanghai’s richest man, Silas Hardoon: to paraphrase a contemporary source, a ...
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Shanghai’s Hidden Ming Temple
In a narrow lane off the Nanjing Road pedestrian street stands a small, shabby box of a building. It’s no match for the flash and buzz of the famous street, yet its powers are so mighty that it has remained part of Shanghai life since the Ming Dynasty. On the roof, a plain red sign with two bright yellow ...
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Shanghai’s Forgotten Courtyard
You’d think there’d be no more surprises left in Shanghai - surely drones, digital maps, and amateur historians have unearthed them all. But here, just a building’s breadth from busy Wulumuqi Lu, stands a timeless Chinese courtyard house. Imagine away everything around it, and this house could be from a thousand ...
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Shanghai’s Preserved Heritage Roads
In 2007, the Shanghai government implemented a plan for the preservation of heritage roads within the city. A total of 144 roads, including lilongs, in 12 historic areas were identified for protection. These included 64 ‘first class roads’ which were ‘never to be widened’ in order to protect both historic ...
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